


beach bunny

by softestrichie



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: M/M, they're 10 years old and they're in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 23:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14658591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softestrichie/pseuds/softestrichie
Summary: richie thinks eddie's funny.





	beach bunny

Eddie’s funny, Richie thinks.

 

Really.

 

Not in the sense you’d imagine, upon hearing the word ‘funny’; not like how you might’ve said Richie was funny. All crude one-liners and goofy, if not rather poor, impersonations. No, Eddie’s kind of funny was completely different. There was something about him, perhaps woven into the lines of his face, or winking in the light of his eyes, that often overwhelmed Richie with the desire to giggle, and smile, and maybe even pull Eddie into a fumbling hug. He was just funny.

 

When Richie was eleven, or maybe ten, he, Eddie and Bill had taken the train down to the nearest beach. It had been very early evening when they’d got there, the sky only just starting to blush and the sunbathers only just sitting up to pack away their seats and towels. Bill had gone off to treat the three of them to vanilla ice cream cones, and Eddie and Richie were left ambling down the pier together, their noses stained red with cold and eyes squinting against the sun.

 

“Are you gonna come in with me?” said Richie, nodding to the grey-blue expanse beneath them. He’d been itching to jump in and splash Eddie when he was least expecting it all day. Eddie blinked, and then wrinkled his nose, a little bit annoyed and a little bit nervous. “Nuh-uh,” he’d said quietly. “You can’t even see the bottom. There’s crabs, I bet – or jellyfish.”  
Richie grinned, making a funny little growling noise and poking Eddie’s cold, pink cheek. “Nervous Nelly!”

 

Eddie rubbed at his cheek, where Richie’s finger had been seconds before, and shot him a look – one of those looks. Those inexplicably funny looks, where his wide eyes and knotted eyebrows looked almost cartoonish. “The beach is very dangerous, Richie,” he said, casting a wary glance at the merry-go-round as they passed it. “Didn’t your momma tell you?”

 

“You could at least take your shoes off,” Richie pushed on, noting Eddie’s boot-shod feet and ignoring his question. Winding up Eddie had always produced brilliant results; the greatest chucks he’d ever have. Richie didn’t want to make him sad, of course. Just a little bit angry. He always got the sense Eddie had almost sort of liked it, anyway.

 

“Jeez, tube socks and all. You’d think you wanted to have a miserable time.”

 

“Why would I wanna take my shoes off?” Eddie replied. Richie’s eyebrows shot up.

 

“It’s better for jumping,” he said, with a lopsided little jump - naturally. Eddie opened his mouth to speak, but Richie was already getting into gears. There was no stopping him once he’d gotten all worked up. “And far easier for climbing, not to mention running –“

 

“Don’t go getting over-excited again, Rich,” came Eddie’s mousy interjection, recycling something he’d heard Mrs. Tozier say earlier that week. When she’d said it, Richie had straightened up and given a smiley ‘sorry’, looking a bit red in the face. Now, however, he only seemed to be running faster, sprinting off down the pier like a skinny dog and looking over his shoulder to grin at Eddie. His pink-and-yellow shoelaces were unravelling by the second.

 

“Richie, would you stop it?!”

 

“Only if you catch me!”

 

They carried on like this, with Richie hurtling ahead and cackling like a madman, and Eddie nervously chasing after him in a half-jog for several minutes. it was only a matter of time, of course, until an utter disaster, which came in the form of Richie crashing into the third bench he’d tried to thunder past and splitting his chin open, just forty seconds later.

 

“Youch!”

 

He’d howled at the top of his lungs and everyone on the pier had watched. Eddie was fumbling for antibacterial cleanser in his satchel. “Toldja Richie,” he groaned. “The seaside is always dangerous.” Richie was tracing the bloody groove on his chin with a finger, which Eddie gently pushed out of the way. “I believe you, beach bunny.”

 

On the train home, Eddie offered Richie either a pink bandaid with blue polka dots, or a white one with a rabbit on it. He took both, and had a nap on Eddie’s shoulder.

 

Eddie grumbled and whined about it until he was blue in the face. But Bill might’ve said there was something about his round, tiny features that evening that was distinctly happy.

 

Funny, that.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to my heavenly friends for the encouragement!  
> tumblr - wlwrichie


End file.
